Montagu Norman
Encyclopedia
Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

 (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English banker, best known for his role as the Governor of the Bank of England
Governor of the Bank of England
The Governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the Bank, with the incumbent grooming his or her successor...

 from 1920 to 1944. Norman, who led the Bank during the harshest period in British economic history, was noted for his somewhat raffish and arty appearance.

Early life and military service

Norman was the elder son of Frederick Henry Norman
Frederick Henry Norman
Frederick Henry Norman was an English merchant banker and a director of the merchant bank Brown, Shipley & Co.. The Norman family have a long history in English banking....

 and Lina Susan Penelope Collet, a daughter of Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet
Mark Wilks Collet
Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet was an English merchant and banker. He served as Governor of the Bank of England between 1887 and 1889, and was made a baronet on 12 June 1888 in connection with his services in converting the National Debt...

, himself a Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

 Governor. The Norman family
Norman family
The Norman family became prominent in British banking circles from about 1820 to 1950. The most prominent member of the family was Montagu Norman...

 were well-known in banking. His brother Ronald Collet Norman
Ronald Collet Norman
Ronald Collet Norman JP was a banker, administrator and politician.He was chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1935 to 1939 and of the London County Council from 1918 to 1919. He was the son of Frederick Henry Norman of the Norman family, long prominent in banking.In 1907 he was...

 and his nephew Mark Norman became leading bankers. His great-nephew David Norman has also led a successful City
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 career and is a noted benefactor of the arts. He was educated at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and spent one year at King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

. He also joined the 4th Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire militia in 1894 and served in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 in 1901.

Merchant banking

After spending time in Europe, he joined Martin's Bank, where his father was a partner, in 1892, Brown, Shipley & Co.
Brown, Shipley & Co.
Brown, Shipley & Co. is a long-established British private bank, based in London.It provides investment management, pensions and associated advisory services for private, institutional and corporate clients.-History:...

, where his maternal grandfather was a partner, in 1894, and Brown Bros. & Co.
Brown Bros. & Co.
Brown Bros. & Co. was an investment bank from 1818 until its merger with Harriman Brothers & Company in 1931 to form Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.-History:...

 of New York, in 1895. He became a partner in Brown Shipley in 1900 before leaving for South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, and retired from them in 1915.

Bank of England

He became a director of the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

 in 1907 and during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he was a financial advisor to government departments. He was appointed Deputy Governor in 1917 and he became Governor in 1920. Under Norman's Governorship, the bank underwent significant change. In 1931 the United Kingdom permanently abandoned the gold standard
Gold standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...

, at which point the bank's foreign exchange and gold reserves were transferred to the British Treasury. He was a close friend of the German Central Bank president Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...

 and the godfather to one of Schacht's grandchildren. Both were members of the Anglo-German Fellowship
Anglo-German Fellowship
The Anglo-German Fellowship was a group which existed from 1935 to 1939 and aimed to build up friendship between the United Kingdom and Germany; it was widely perceived as being allied to Nazism...

 and the Bank for International Settlements
Bank for International Settlements
The Bank for International Settlements is an intergovernmental organization of central banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks." It is not accountable to any national government...

. Norman's exact role and responsibility as director of the BIS during the time when ₤6,000,000 of Czechoslovak gold held in the Bank of England was transferred to the German Reichsbank
Reichsbank
The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876 . The Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend...

 in 1939, is yet to be determined. He retired from the bank in 1944.

Honours

Following his retirement, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Norman, of St Clere in the County of Kent, on 13 October 1944. In addition to receiving the Distinguished Service Order, Norman was sworn of the Privy Council in 1923 and was created a Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown
Order of the Crown (Belgium)
The Order of the Crown is an Order of Belgium which was created on 15 October 1897 by King Leopold II in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State. The order was first intended to recognize heroic deeds and distinguished service achieved from service in the Congo Free State - many of which acts...

.

Personal life

On 2 November 1933, Lord Norman married Priscilla Cecilia Maria Reyntiens
Priscilla Reyntiens
Priscilla Cecilia Maria Reyntiens, The Lady Norman, CBE, JP was a London councillor, board member, and supporter of mental health and nursing institutions....

, London councillor and granddaughter of the Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon
Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon
Montagu Arthur Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon was an English peer.-Background:He was the fifth child of Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon and Elizabeth Lavinia Vernon-Harcourt.-Family:...

. He gained two stepsons from this marriage; Sir Simon Towneley
Simon Towneley
Sir Simon Peter Edmund Cosmo William Towneley, KCVO, KCSG was born with the surname Koch de Gooreynd, the elder son of a British father of Belgian stock, Alexander L.W...

 and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne
Peregrine Worsthorne
Sir Peregrine Gerard Worsthorne is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. He was educated at Stowe School, Peterhouse, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford. Worsthorne spent the largest part of his career at the Telegraph newspaper titles, eventually becoming editor of The Sunday Telegraph...

. Lord Norman died at his home in Campden Hill
Campden Hill
Campden Hill is an area of high ground in west London between Notting Hill, Kensington and Holland Park.The area is characterised by large Victorian houses. It is also the site of reservoirs established in the 19th century by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company and the West Middlesex Waterworks...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, in 1950 following a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

. Norman had no children himself and his barony became extinct on his death.

Further reading

  • Ahamed, Liaquat
    Liaquat Ahamed
    Liaquat Ahamed is a Pulitzer-prize winning author and investment manager. He has worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and the New York-based partnership of Fischer, Francis, Trees and Watts, where he served as Chief Executive....

    , Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, Penguin Books
    Penguin Books
    Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

    , 2009. ISBN 978-1-59420-182-0

External links

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